Introduction

IN THE MIRROR OF WORDS

Dans le Miroir des Mots

Live from art?

Live art.

The art of living?

Live the artist.

Artists who live as they can.

Perhaps an artist lives inside us.

Every life is a creation. Life is priceless. Or… has a price we can never pay. Neither life nor creation can exist if there is no desire to give life, to imagine a beginning somewhere, to sacrifice a drop of blood for (…), to offer a continuation or a real outline to a first dream, to a first ideal (…), to speak a first word to the stranger, to express a first desire, to follow a first hint of love.

The goal of art is not to create works that time ruins, but to awaken the genius of the Other that sleeps within us!

And the other? – Nietzsche would have asked, at the risk of distorting his credo. Who is the Other?

The other is in our lives, each time “I,” each time “you” but never the

“same” !

Issue 4 of Levure littéraire proposes illustrating in words, images and sounds the relationship of the me, the author you, the publisher. A subtle, problematic, ambiguous subject. At the same time social, cultural and economical, at the same time taboo and ineffable, of which the heart of the problem is the profession of publisher (in correlation with that of author), with everything that implies: publishing contracts, copyright, distribution and promotion of books.

No, we will not get into the legal controversies around the creator-author-publisher relationship, nor the theories, theorems and other linguistic distinctions of that so-called isosceles triangle that are manifested in the social relationships of those professions (so ancient and so weakened by their era, and epistemes, but so necessary still for the maintenance, development and renewal of a harmonious, peaceful human society).

It happens that from time to time, from case to case, the antagonism between the profession of author and the profession of publisher brings out different logics and divergent points of view on the market for artistic products.

Our publication does not want to get into the social and financial status of the artist, for, alas, we do not have the competency for it, and talking about it just for the sake the saying something is not our choice.

We are not going to list for you all the financial concerns that affect the partnership relationship between publishers and authors, following the disputes, ignominious behaviour, gossip and slanders coming from all sides.

We will not talk about what French writer and journalist Pierre Assouline calls “What is not working anymore between authors and publishers.”

Issue 4 of Levure littéraire will not take you behind the scenes of what often gets in the way of cooperation between all these defenders of literary life.

Levure… will therefore not be the spokesperson for these malfunctions of marketing.

This latest edition of our journal will remain loyal to the positive energy it has displayed since the beginning with respect to inventive creation of any kind. Quality content, in contrast to the aggressiveness and vulgarity of the world of politics today, which we have to share the limelight with.

Levure…, our young journal, the lungs of the dissemination of art and international culture, is intended for all admirers of beauty and for everyone who loves words, for all readers who take pleasure from their eyes and their minds…

That is why on your Internet screen, our guests, creators, producers and promoters of literature will stand full in the light, one beside the other, and in the (filtered) reflection of the mirror, to better present arguments for the fruitful friendship that ties them. Their presence in LEVURE 4 goes beyond the simple games of the narcissistic, productive, or playful and open ego, the sole goal of which seems to be aesthetic effect for its own sake, and perhaps, who knows, the occasional and contractual collaboration of creators and producers.

In the “Levurian” mirrors, publishers and authors of yesterday and today make up a “set of sincere portraits,” through a multitude of small photo mirrors, polished, smooth… and creative images, in which they contemplate each other and talk together, with one another, with the other, naturally, almost forgetting the myth and the complex of Pygmalion.

Our authors and publishers identify with these portraits reflected by mirror words, in the name of a shared work that is destined for them: the creation of words (or the words of creation), this casualness of imagination and spoken dreaming as work of art.

Just as Moses, a man of god, a major prophet, who made an altar with the mirrors of women, these preachers of culture in the moral desert of existence in the 21st century had the pleasure of showing us the human dimension of their work as artists, the only power of reconciliation, communication and transmission between both the languages and cultures of nations.

They have found the time and the pleasure to express themselves in the pages of our publication on respect, fraternity and the creative sharing in lands of artists.

In addition to a few well-known and even very well-known European authors and publishers, you will have the opportunity to discover authors and publishers from the United States who want to reveal to a wider audience the richness and ingenuity of the culture of writing and publishing in America.

It was not the biggest American publishers who joined forces with us. We did not even contact them. Joking aside, it was the small publishers, who work for the love of literature, who sacrifice their time, which they likely have better things to do with, to collaborate on the creation of an original book , most often a bibliophile’s object, produced with craftsmanship and in small print runs. Micropublishing and friendly microdistribution, solely on the Internet and in a few places that welcome that kind of promotion (private evenings, book clubs, cafés and bars, poetry festivals, etc.), supporting authors who want to become known to a public that cares about poetry and lyrical music.

These authors?

Who are their publishers?

These publishers?

Who are their authors?

This group of publishers are respectful of the talent and work of their authors. And even though they do not play the major societal role of big publishers, they must not be ignore, because they represent that little human link between creators and those passionate about authentic creation.

How do we discover the creativity of these groups of artists?

Also in this issue of our publication, guests of honour will help us discover their friends (authors or publishers). Through a few links (to be clicked!), each indicating an author or publisher guest (and their author & publisher friends), arrows and virtual paths will be created for you, dear readers. You will travel through the creative universe of our friends & collaborators.

Reasons? To launch publishers, writers and artists who are less well known, but talented, revisit and reapproach those that are well known, reread and rehear the music of languages and voices, fight against the forced solitude, isolation, alienation, violence and intolerance suffered by the modern individual.